Countdown Blocks

December is always a busy month for me. I try to make a lot of homemade Christmas gifts to give friends and family, which always ends up taking longer to make than I think they will. Then I'm ususally waiting in long lines at the post office, hoping that my gifts will even get to thier recipients in time for Christmas. 

The past many years I've felt like things were so hectic during the holidays that I've had a really hard time being able to enjoy the season like I used to. Every year I promise myself that next year I'll do things better, I'll be on the ball and get my gifts made and mailed early so that things are not so crazy with all the last minute preparations.

That's been kind of hard for me, because I tend to be a last minute kind of girl. It's when the pressure is on that I get the inspiration and drive to get things like this accomplished. So, December comes and I find myself once again rushing to get all the gifts made and sent, and as usual promising myself that next year will be different. 

Well, hopefully this will be the year that things are different! 

A couple of weeks ago my teenage daughter and I decided to get busy and start making some of our Christmas gifts. A little Christmas in July! 

Admittedly, I had some push to do it since I had a brother coming to visit who could deliver some of the gifts, which would save me a ton of postage over mailing them all to Canada. 

This also gave me a deadline, so the last minute motivation was there, even though it wasn't December! 

My Christmas list seems to get bigger every year. More and more of my nephews and neices are getting married and starting families of their own. This year I wanted to make something fun for some of them that they could use for thier young families. 

After lots of Pinterest scanning, my daughter and I decided that we should make them some Countdown Blocks (seen here). 

We have a set of Countdown Blocks in our home that we've used now for a lot of years. My kids have had a lot of fun using them to get excited about upcoming events. The ones we have were specifically made for Christmas, but we keep them up all year long, and use them to count down to other holidays and birthdays, etc. 

So, for these blocks we decided to make them general, so that they could use them all year long, not just for Christmas. I hope they'll like them! 

Note to my married nephews and neices: I'm pretty confident that none of you read my blog, but if you do... pretend you didn't see this post! Forget all about it, and be surprised on Christmas! 

Here's how we made our Countdown Blocks

First I cut some blocks out of a 4x4 post (I had some leftover from when I made this welcome post). The post isn't really 4x4, because of wood shrinkage it was 3.5x3.5, so I cut them 3.5 to make them square. I also cut a 2x4 7.5 inches long. I sanded all the pieces down till they were nice and smooth.

Then I picked out some coordinating paper. Picking paper is always a hard step for me, but luckily I had in my paper stash some already coordinating paper perfect for this project. I'm pretty sure I bought this to use for some other project that I didn't get to, but since I can't remember what that was it must not be important! 

Next we painted the wood. We painted a couple of coats of blue, focusing primarily on the edges, since that is what would show up. We did end up covering the entire block of wood with paint on our last coat.

After painting the blocks we modged podged on paper squares (cut to 3 inches) to the blocks, and a paper strip (cut 7x1.25) onto the long piece. We inked the edges of the paper with blue ink before we attached them for a little added extra effect. 

I cut Vinyl numbers and "countdown", though you could use stickers if you don't have a vinyl cutting machine. The numbers you need for these are 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. This makes it so you can count anything down for one month (or up to 32 days). Notice that there is no nine because the six gets turned upside down to become the nine. When choosing a font to cut (or stickers) watch that the 6 can interchange to a 9 nicely. I didn't think of that when I chose my font so it's not the best looking nine, but it will do.

We attached the vinyl... one block of the set getting a 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The other getting a 0, 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8. And of course, the "countdown" going on the 2x4.

Once we were happy with how everything looked, we coated all the blocks with more modge podge and let them dry. 

Lastly, we carefully wrapped them, and happily sent them on their way! Phew, that eases some of December's burden! 

We made a couple more Christmas presents that week that I'll probably tell you about another day!

Personalized Picture Clock

This is a project I pin-complished quite a while ago. When I first came across this pin I knew I didn't want to wait long to recreate one of these for myself. I love having unique and useful ways to display pictures, so this was perfect. 

I also like easy, and this was really easy. I think the hardest part was gathering the supplies... I probably spent a good twenty minutes in the aisle at Michael's trying to decide which clock hands I wanted to use! 

I bet you could make this too!

Here's what I used: 

1 12x12 wooden board (purchased at Michael's Craft Store)

1 package of clock parts (also purchased at Michael's)

Craft paint to match my picture (I used black)

Foam paint brushes

Texture cream (purchased here)
      *You could also just use Modge Podge, but I love the texture cream because it gives it the look of canvas)

Spray adhesive

A favorite picture 

Here's what I did:

First, I used a photo editing program to crop my picture to a square and to add the clock numbers. To get the spacing just right I googled clock images and used one as a template over my picture while I added the numbers in the font I wanted (then removed the template). 

I had my picture printed professionally (just at Wal-Mart), and got to work! 

I painted the edges and sides of my board black. When the paint was dry I attached my picture to the board with spray adhesive. Then I carefully applied texture cream over the picture. I did a couple of coats of this to give it a nice criss cross effect and make it look like canvas. 

Once that was all dry I drilled a hole right in the middle of the board. I figured out where the middle was by drawing two lines on the back side of the board, each across from corner to corner. The middle was where the two lines met. 

Once I had the hole drilled I just attached the clock mechanism and hands. I inserted a battery, set the time, and had a beautiful way to display a family picture. 

I loved this project so much, and it was so easy, that I made three more of them right away for gifts. 

I wish I had pictures of those to show you too (especially the one I made for my sister with her cute family picture), but unfortunately my camera got stolen before I had transferred the pictures to my computer :(  (a very sad day), so you'll just have to trust me that it turned out beautiful too!